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Rapides man, friends join Cajun Navy for Harvey rescues

Butch Grubin of Forrest Hill, Louisiana, with his buddy John Mott of Colfax, Louisiana, were near Winnie, Texas, Aug. 27, 2017, on their way to Dickerson, Texas, pulling a boat, to rescue people trapped by Hurricane Harvey's flooding rains.

Taylor Moore of Ruby joined the Cajun Navy, along with friends from Central Louisiana, to help rescue victims of Hurricane Harvey in Southeast Texas.(Photo: Courtesy, Taylor Moore)

Taylor Moore of Ruby saw the best of humanity during the several days he spent rescuing victims of Hurricane Harvey.

He saw countless people, like him, with nothing but a boat and a desire to help descend on East Texas.

He saw family after family shuttled to safety. He saw the look of fear on their faces as the rising water trapped them, heard their pleas for help, then watched their tears turn to smiles as they were dropped on dry land.

Moore experienced so many inspirational moments in the time he was part of rescue efforts, it's difficult for him to focus on just one.

Moore was piloting his small boat through flooded areas around Orange, Texas, when it happened.

Trying to reach a man on a bridge, Moore and friend Matt Raines found themselves sucked up against the guardrail by an unforgiving current.

The left side of the boat was stuck against the rail and being pulled under. The right side was out of the water and rising into the air.

The pull of the water surging around the boat was so strong it seemed like rapids. To make it worse, it was about 3 a.m., pitch black and no one knew where they were.

It took Moore and Raines close to 45 harrowing minutes to fight their way off the rail and out of danger.

"If we went under that guardrail, the undertow was so bad, I don't how well we would have fared," Moore said. "I grew up doing stuff in the outdoors. I've done some pretty dangerous stuff and had some close calls, but this topped all of them.

"And the funny thing is, after all of this, the guy didn't come with us. He was happy up there on the bridge. He didn't want to leave."

So chalk up one aborted rescue. But there were many, many more successful ones, and Moore will never forget any of them.

Moore estimates he and friends that went with him rescued hundreds of people in trips that began on a Sunday night and lasted until Thursday.

A family is taken from a flooded neighborhood in Taylor Moore's boat. Moore, from Ruby, and a group of friends helped rescue victims of Hurricane Harvey in East Texas over several days.(Photo: Courtesy, Taylor Moore)

"When you think of all the people who wouldn't have gotten out if so many weren't willing to put their own lives in danger," Moore said. "I pray that, if we were ever in that situation, people would do anything they could to help us."

Moore got involved in rescue efforts when friend Jimmy Greer and cousin Caleb Stark told him the Cajun Navy, a volunteer group that made a national name for itself by assisting people in the Louisiana floods of 2016, was headed to Texas and needed as many boats as it could get to help.

"We got together and said, 'We have to do this,'" he said.

So Moore and friend Josh Sykes loaded up their boats with gas, water and other supplies and headed for the rally point in Pasadena, Texas. The next morning, they were rescuing people from the flooded areas near Beltway 8, which loops around Houston.

Moore went home after that long first day. But the next day he was back in Texas, and the day after that.

"Every time I left, I felt guilty," he said. "Knowing there were so many more people who needed help."

Moore, who works as a surgical ICU nurse at Rapides Regional Medical Center, was finally back home for good on Friday.

"It was such a humbling and awesome experience to see so many people come together," he said. "It didn't matter what race you were, where you're from, whether you're Republican or Democrat. All that mattered was these people needed help.

"You see so much division throughout our country. This proved what our nation is really all about."